We’ve been playing musical stories with the contents of A Dirge for the Temporal so long that I don’t even remember what a table (of contents) should look like! I think we’ve got it pretty close to “just right” now though. So many different aspects have to be considered to create the best order for a short story collection. Of course you have to have really killer stories at the beginning to make a good impression and also at the end to leave a good impression. The stories next to each other should relate to but not be too similar...

We’re moving right along with the transcription of Everybody Scream! There’s over 76,000 words typed in now. One thing I didn’t mention before is how amazing I find it that Jeff Thomas was able to handwrite this novel completely from start to finish without the aid of a computer and wind up with such a carefully plotted book. Reading passages for the second time it’s really dawned on me just how complex the story he’s weaved is and just how tight he has woven it. Details that seem like minor embellishments turn into the lynchpins of major plot points. He...

In my last entry I mentioned that I had typed a few more pages of Everybody Scream! which got me thinking about how unique the whole process has been with this novel. When we first approached Jeff Thomas about releasing something of his on RDSP he told us he had a completed novel, possibly his best work. We were hooked. But there was one drawback, the novel was entirely handwritten. In fact, Jeff hated the thought of typing it in so much that it had been sitting around for 15 years. Still, a novel that Thomas himself was very proud...

How do people ever keep up with their blogs? Most of the blogs I visit people write in every day, sometimes even more than once per day. Somehow I manage to only get something up every week or so. Of course a lot of people’s blogs are peppered with chores they should be doing, chores they’ve done that day, and chores they will soon need to do. Three cheers for chores! Well RDSP certainly has no shortage of chores that need to be done, a few chores that are done on a daily basis and tons of chores that will...

Finally the layout for our second book, Sick, is complete! After a huge sigh of relief I began to contemplate the totally thankless nature of book layout. If you do it right, no one should notice. The recent boom in self and small press publishing has been great for variety but is often hard on the eyes. If you’ve ever picked up a zine where each page of text is crammed to the gills with tiny letters you know what I’m talking about. Scientists have actually studied the effect of layout on a reader’s mood and found that poor layout...

Experts say that for a small press to succeed it needs to have a distinct identity and cater to a specific niche of customers. That’s why small presses thrive in genre communities like sci-fi, fantasy & horror. Since RDSP is just starting out we are struggling to define our press and reach out to an audience. But lately our little puppy has been showing signs of schizophrenia. One day he’s in a beret, squinting through a monocle and carrying a walking stick, the next day he’s got on his spike collar, sun glasses and leather jacket! (One thing I have...